“How many women? How many murders did you know about?” Something inside me screams, seeking truths I can’t find. His brow knits. His eyes drop to the mattress, then back up. Focusing on my hair, he picks up a lock and curls it, the crusted blood coming away on his fingers. “Too many, Liz.”
I squeeze my eyes closed. “Tell me how many.”
Silence hangs, the air thickening, pulsing, screaming. I don’t remember a time when darkness wasn’t part of my life. I want to be free of it, but that will never happen if I don’t know all the pain, all the victims. Healing is having knowledge.
With the sound of a million shards of glass shattering, he tells me, “Thirteen I know about, more I don’t.”
My hands clench and a rogue tear leaks free. Shadows dance in my mind, the monster crawling inside me, tainting my existence. I don’t feel like me. It’s like I’m living someone else’s life. I’m numb. “Including the new murders?” I choke out.
His mouth twists, and he shakes his head no. “I told you it’s not Willis.” He moves closer to me, his body almost vibrating, like it’s causing him physical pain to keep himself away. Moments go by, and part of me wants to crawl into his skin, live in the shelter of his chest, let him hold me in his beating heart. But there are so many questions—so much that’s unanswered.
“It’s his same pattern—his signature.” I’m barely breathing. I think I’m going to pass out.
“It’s not him,” he reiterates with a decisive shake of his head.
“But—”
“Lizzy, trust me,” he urges, grasping my cheek. Fire burns under his touch. I want to fade into it, drift away in the exquisite comfort.
“Jack,” I whisper, the intensity thick on my tongue.
The gasp that leaves his lips is audible. “Say it again.”
I want to suspend us at this moment, in the embers of the inferno we create when our skin connects before everything turns cold. “Say my name again, Liz.”
My chest lifts with an exaggerated breath. “Jack.” My voice is barely above a whisper, a sensual kick to the k. Tugging me forward, his lips crash into mine, punishing, desperate, seeking, a feral eagerness. Energy pulses in the air. We fit. He steals the very air I breathe, unrelenting. I know just from this one kiss he’s never letting me go. At this moment, I never want him to. My body responds to his like it was created to do just that. My fingers knead and caress, grasping on for dear life. Our tongue dance, my body being pulled to his like gravity. The chemistry between us is astronomical. If we continue this, he’ll ruin me. “Liz, everything okay in there?” Charlotte's voice penetrates the fog of lust. Pulling back, I try to catch my breath. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
Sighing, lips swollen, I feel the rupture of my soul as his eyes reflect my emotions. I’ve never felt more at ease in another’s arms. He feels like…home.
“I can’t believe it’s really you,” I say, placing a hand to my lips to feel the vibrations he’s left there.
“Believe it.”
“I tried to be where you were. I searched for you. Nothing ever led me to you. You were always out of reach. Disappearing back to the echoes of my memories. Am I dreaming you’re here? When I wake, will it all disappear—will you disappear?”
“Never,” he says with such conviction, it hits down to the marrow of my bones. “I promise, I’d give you every last breath inside my lungs before I’ll ever leave you again.”
“Were you lonely?” The thought of him being alone all this time is an unbearable casualty.
Taking my hand in his, he places it against the flesh of his cheek. “Being lonely isn’t a fear of mine—being forgotten by the one who incites my loneliness is.” He sweeps me into his arms, weightless.
“You have been calling out to me, deep in my soul. Missing you caused a physical ache in my bones. I’ve been caught in a bad dream, desperate for you to wake me from it.”
“You’re not dreaming now. I’m right here. Feed on me. Let me set you free,” he begs.
I’ve been so lost until this moment, finding myself again within him.Twenty-OneHeat spreads all around me. Sweat coats my skin. Heavy limbs lay on top of mine. Jack.
Forcing my eyes open, a relieved breath escapes. He’s still here. It wasn’t a dream. He found me.
My bladder protests the weight of his arm draped over my stomach, so I gently lift it and roll out from beneath him. Sneaking out of the room to use the bathroom, I startle when I attempt to pull down my panties and the door opens. Charlotte followed by Stephan walk in, and my mouth drops open as I rush to pull my panties back into place. “What the hell?” I hiss, double-checking nothing’s on display.